The invention relates to a portable television camera as described in the preamble of claim 1.
Portable television cameras are known in the art and are for example used for gathering news, different sport events, and other things.
The cameraman or woman normally carries the portable television camera on his/her shoulder. When recording scenes he normally looks with one eye in the ocular of a viewfinder and with his other eye he sees a part of the surroundings in front of him/her.
During making the recordings he often has to walk in a forward or backward direction. As the cameraman sees part of the surroundings in front of him he normally does not encounters problems in walking in a forward direction. But walking in a backward direction he has to do xe2x80x9cblindxe2x80x9d.
In the past it has frequently happened that a cameraman walked against obstacles or for example fell down from a podium etc.
It is inter alia an object of the invention to provide a portable television camera, which overcomes the objections of the prior art. To this end a first aspect of the invention provides a portable television camera as claimed in claim 1.
By adding an auxiliary camera to the portable television camera the cameraman is able to view a scene behind and or next to him. That is to say to view the surroundings and can use this information for example when he wants to walk around during recording.
It is to be noticed here that the use of a camera as a rear view mirror to view behind the person is known per se and for example used with trucks.
Further it is to be noticed here that an auxiliary camera also is already used in a studio environment to keep an overview of the surroundings during zooming in very detail.
An embodiment of the invention comprises the features as claimed in claim 2. A further embodiment of the invention comprised features of claim 3.
By displaying the second view (behind and/or next to the camera man) on the view finder of the portable television camera the camera man can, during recording a scene in front of him, xe2x80x9cseexe2x80x9d what obstacles are behind him and so is able to walk backwards in safety.
An embodiment of the invention comprises the features of claim 4. By mechanically coupling the auxiliary camera flexible to the housing of the portable television camera the cameraman is able to direct the auxiliary camera as he prefers.